Rockin' chair days.
Oh I remember the ol' days.
Photoshop 3, on a 3.5 Floppy Disk and printing images in the lab.
Yes the lab, I spent the first few years out of school working in photo labs..... printing and learning the ropes from many experienced photographers.
When you snapped a great shot of someone getting barrelled on the trusty ol' Nikons 5 (film) they'd come around to your place with a six pack as a form of payment for the negative or a copy of the print. Or they would generally offer to give you a little bit of money for your time and effort.
An image had value, a soul.
When you submitted to the mags to get published you had to send the slide or negative and hope that they would send it back. Thanks Ted...lol.
Well, it's a sad reality that the value of an image is pretty well nothing now due to the new breed of tech junkie photographers. They are giving away images on Facebook or other social sites with zero copyright or control over the end destination of that image. It has opened up a big can of worms.
They're just selling themselves short. Peanut/ Monkey analogy springs to mind....
A wise mentor once said to me "Never sell yourself short, know your value".
BP you know who you are.....
It seems that now, even asking for five dollars for a cracking water image (off the everyday dude) seems to be too much.
It's pretty funny considering the risk involved out there in the surf. You just happen to be swimming around with about 6-8 thousand dollars worth of gear. Believe me I'd rather be surfing some days.
I love what I do and have always tried to help out many people with the occasional freebie and story for the mags.
Unfortunately, the sad reality is that most people think that a "like or follow" is a form of currency. I know, I'm a dinosaur.
"Oh such and such has this many followers, if you just give me that one they'll post it, it's free publicity for you and they'll follow you."
We'll after you've heard that for the twelfth time in that week it gets old, and surely doesn't pay the rent or any of your overheads such as insurance, camera maintenance, website or advertising.
When you dine in a restaurant do you turn around and say "Can I eat for free?"
Or go to the mechanics and pay with likes? Or the bakery? I think you get my point.
This isn't an old man having a whinge, it's just a little bit of guidance for that new photographer coming through. Don't sell yourself short.
If your using a $300 camera with no training, sure start off by giving some of your stuff away and making moves towards better gear and training. As you progress charge accordingly.
The digital era has put some fantastic gear in everyone's hands cheaply so technical skills have been replaced by full auto and rapid fire.
Spare a thought for the dudes that've been doing it for a long time that have put in the effort and hard yards. These guys are trying to make a living or at least recoupe some of the many tens of thousands of dollars they've spent upgrading there gear step by step to a decent skill/quality level.
Sometimes when I swim out I get asked a barrage of questions, "what settings do you use"ect..
I'm all for answering a few questions, a few not fifty thousand regarding what settings I use etc. There's not one quick answer. My short answer is to look at the destination and then work backwards. If your going for a certain shot, picture it in your head and work backwards and set your camera accordingly. The new generation needs to learn the "how to" as opposed to the "just google for the quick answer".
I'm just going to leave this here. My website: www.wetfoot.com.au.
Just in case you didn't know.
It's been fun, feel free to look back over the many postings over the years, you're probably in some of them.
Most are low res and untouched as I hate sitting at the computer....lol.
Take care and Best Wishes.
Mark B.
